TERRAFORMING TERRA
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Friday, June 20, 2014

Saffron: Ancient Healing Powers Confirmed

It appears that saffron is strongly indicated as a
tool to relieve depression and the effects of Alzheimer’s. At least good enough to match known therapies
and that surely makes it a first choice.

It is still early days as hold true for most
biological agents. All we have to go on
is what thousands of years of empirical trials can tell us. Too often they actually come up short and
that leaves us too few starting points.

I really wish that we applied organic protocols
across the population of the sick generally while we are in position to map
results. Most signals will be neutral
but that is also data.

I have come to the specific conclusion that Chinese
ginseng acts to correct blood biochemistry.
This is actually huge and seriously important, yet also subtle. This is still a highly testable
conjecture. Many drugs do disturb blood
chemistry. Testing ginseng to counter
that effect is a simple protocol.

Clearly there is
something magical about the Crocus sativus flower, from which the spice saffron
is derived. If its striking beauty does not immediately cast a spell on
its beholder, often it simply takes experiencing the spice to fall into full
enchantment with it. While saffron is exceptionally expensive, because it
takes approximately 150 flowers to yield just 1,000 mg (0.035 oz) of dry
saffron threads, and costs approximately $1,000 a pound, it does not take much to have an effect. Its uniqueness is
also illustrated by the fact that it shuns mechanization, requiring of its
would-be possessors that it be painstakingly harvested by hand , as no doubt
has been done for tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years.
Because each Crocus sativus flower bears no more than four flowers, each with
three vivid crimson stigmas from which the spice is derived, at most only 12
stigma are produced by each, which yields the equivalent of 30 mg (0.011 oz) of
fresh saffron or 7 mg (0.00025 oz) dried.

Saffron has been
documented to have been used as a versatile medicine since ancient times. In
2004 researchers studying 3,500 year old frescoes at Thera, a Greek island in
the Aegean, found depictions of a goddess presiding over the manufacturer and
use of a drug from the saffron flower. [i] Perhaps even more
amazing is the fact that 50,000 year-old depictions of prehistoric places in
northwest Iran contained saffron-based pigments, indicating the human
relationship with saffron is as old as time itself.[ii]

Saffron’s chemistry
expresses otherworldly complexity. It contains over 150 volatile and
aroma-yielding compounds – a biochemical symphony that ensures its mystery will
never fully be plumbed, at least insofar as it great medicinal power remains
refractory to the reductionist gaze of modern pharmacology. What power might
that be?

While recent mainstream
coverage of saffron weight loss promoting
properties (via appetite suppression) on the Dr. Oz show has caused quite a
surge of renewed interest in this exotic spice, saffron has far more to offer
than that. It may, in fact, hold promise for serious neurodegenerative
conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease…

A 22-week multicenter,
randomized, double-blind controlled trial of saffron in the management of
mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease published in 2010, showed 15 mg twice a
day was as effective as donepezil (Aricept) at 5 mg twice a day, with
significantly less vomiting as a side effect. Another 16-week, randomized
and placebo-controlled trial also published in 2010, showed that 15 mg of
saffron twice per day was both safe and effective in mild to moderate
Alzheimer’s disease.

The petals of the Crocus
sativus plant have also been shown nearly equipotent to Prozac (fluoxetine) as
a treatment for depression. According to a study published in the journal Progress
in Neuropsychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry in 2007, 15 mg of
Crocus sativus petals were as effective as 10 mg of Prozac in treating mild to
moderate depression, putting 25% of the participants into full remission.
Another depression study published 2004 showed that saffron, at 30 mg a day,
was as effective as the drug imipramine, at 100 mg a day, in the treatment of
mild to moderate depression.

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About Me

Jan 2015 - 3 Mil Pg Views, March 2013 - Posted my paper introducing CLOUD COSMOLOGY & NEUTRAL NEUTRINO rigorously described, September 2010 I am pleased to report that my essay titled A NEW METRIC WITH APPLICATIONS TO PHYSICS AND SOLVING CERTAIN HIGHER ORDERED DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS' has been published in Physics Essays(AIP) and appeared in their June 2010 quarterly. 40 years ago I took an honors degree in applied mathematics from the University of Waterloo. My interest was Relativity and my last year there saw me complete a 900 level course under Hanno Rund on his work in relativity,as well as differential geometry(pure math) and of course analysis. I continued researching new ideas and knowledge since that time and I have prepared a book for publication titled 'Paradigms Shift'. I maintain my blog as a day book and research tool to retain data and record impressions and interpretations on material read. Do join my blog and receive Four items of interest daily Monday through Saturday.